Colombian migrants returning home on Tuesday aboard Colombian military flights recounted being shackled during earlier U.S. flights that were blocked by their country’s leader, amid a dispute with President Donald Trump that nearly led to a trade war.
Deportation flights between the U.S. and Colombia resumed on Tuesday after the diplomatic tension over the weekend, which provided insight into how the Trump administration would handle countries blocking large-scale deportation plans for migrants who entered illegally.
Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro initially refused to accept two U.S. military planes carrying migrants, prompting Trump to threaten 25% tariffs on Colombian exports and impose other sanctions. Colombia then relented, agreeing to accept the migrants but insisting they be flown on Colombian military planes, which Petro said would ensure their dignity.
Two Colombian Air Force planes landed in Bogotá on Tuesday, carrying over 200 migrants, many of them women and children. Petro welcomed the migrants with a post on X, saying they were now “free” and in “a country that loves them.”
“Migrants are not criminals,” Petro wrote. “They are human beings who want to work and get ahead in life.” One of the migrants, José Montaña from Medellín, said they were shackled on the earlier U.S. flights. “We were shackled from our feet, our ankles to our hips, like criminals,” Montaña said. “There were women whose kids had to see their moms shackled like they were drug traffickers.” Several migrants told journalists they had been in the U.S. for less than two weeks, spending most of their time in detention centers.
“We went for the American dream, and we ended up living the American nightmare,” said Carlos Gómez, a migrant from Barranquilla. Gómez left Colombia two weeks ago, flew to Mexico, and crossed the border into California with the help of smugglers.
On Monday evening, Trump recounted the conflict with Petro, maintaining that migrants should be restrained during deportation flights for security reasons.
“We were being scolded because we had them in shackles in an airplane and he said this is no way to treat people,” Trump said at a policy conference for House Republicans held at his Doral golf club in Florida. “You’ve got to understand, these are murderers, drug lords, gang members, just the toughest people you’ve ever met or seen.”
The Trump administration has stated that it would prioritize the deportation of migrants with criminal records in the initial phases of its mass deportation plans, though it also mentioned that deportations could include anyone who entered the U.S. illegally.
It was not immediately clear how many of the returned Colombian migrants had criminal records.
A deal between the two countries was struck on Sunday night to resume the deportation flights, with the White House issuing a statement that Colombia had “agreed to all of President Trump’s terms,” including accepting deportees on military flights. Colombia sent two Air Force planes to Houston and El Paso on Monday to pick up the migrants whose deportation had been delayed, as well as others who had pending deportations. A total of 201 migrants were transported to Bogotá on Tuesday, according to Colombia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Last year, Colombia received more than 120 deportation flights, but those were charter flights operated by U.S. government contractors.
Wolfram Díaz, a migrant from Bucaramanga, Colombia, who had been in the U.S. for less than two weeks, said U.S. officials had them board a C-130 Hercules aircraft shackled.
“It was on its way to Colombia, but I am not sure what happened. We were turned back,” he said, adding that they were kept in handcuffs until they were transferred to the custody of Colombian officials.
Gómez, the migrant from Barranquilla, said he turned himself in to U.S. Border Patrol agents and requested an asylum hearing. However, he was held for seven days in detention centers before being deported. He made the journey with his 17-year-old son.
“We only want a better future for our children,” Gómez said.